


Unbeknownst

by x_x



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Exhibitionism, F/M, Hypersexuality, Questionable Consent, memory manipulation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:07:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26419960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/x_x/pseuds/x_x
Summary: Lavellan has needs. Cole helps.
Relationships: Cole/Female Lavellan (Dragon Age)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 57





	1. Not The First Time

She was losing time.

Or rather, she kept losing track of where she was, where she had been, what she had just been doing. 

She thought she actually might be losing her mind.

At first, Ellana had assumed she was being absentminded. Corypheus had her in a chokehold maybe only a couple weeks prior? Her ears still rung from the Archdemon's screeches. But when she discreetly asked around about others' experiences post their mass escape from Haven, no one shared hers. She begun to fear she'd been Blighted.

It'd been happening for as long as they'd been at Skyhold.

Trying not to jump to the worst conclusion, she had pressed Solas for more answers about the castle's origins and any preceding ownership. But he only gave her vague, albeit prettily poetic, non-answers. When she tried to dig, he shut down completely, to the point of becoming cold towards her. And when he reversed the interrogation and began to pry for the reasons behind her questions, she similarly clamped up and excused herself.

Because, it would have been simple if the loss of time were the only thing happening to her.

It wasn't, though.

Whenever she lost track of herself, once she came to, she would be...disheveled. Her body would feel hot and sore, and she'd be perspiring and winded. She would be aching between her legs, and her small clothes would be a sopping mess.

At first, she couldn't be too sure of what that could mean.

But then, as it kept happening, it became more obvious.

Her shirt would be pulled up or opened entirely, exposing her breasts. Sometimes her trousers were pulled down, occasionally all the way off. And her twat would be puffed and leaking. As if someone had just been inside. As if someone had _finished_ inside, and all of their cum was dripping out of her. But she would have no memory of how it got there. Of who was violating her.

She'd blink and she'd be lying on a table, leaned heavily against a wall, or bent over the side of a railing.

Stranger still, as she scrambled in panic to regain decency, anyone around her would carry on as if nothing was amiss. They would look at her in all states of undress, and greet her with a nod or the standard "Inquisitor" acknowledgement.

She'd been in the courtyards, on the battlements, or in very much occupied rooms, and still-- no one would find anything out of place with the newly appointed Inquisitor, half-stripped and sprawled over any given surface, with still-warm cum pulsing fresh from between her legs. But everyone simply regarded her like normal. It was as if they didn't even notice.

That wasn't the worst part.

It should have been, she knew.

It should have been more than just disconcerting that any of this was happening.

But no. The worst part were the times that she'd regain awareness, and she wouldn't be warm, but _hot_. Her body would be abuzz with sensitivity and need. And her pussy would feel sore, throbbing, and empty.

As if someone had touched and fucked her, but didn't finish. As if she'd been teased only to the very brink.

She'd feel like she be on the verge of madness.

Fortunately, these moments rarely lasted long. She'd find herself skipped to moments ahead, in a different position, breathless and satisfied and filled, and trembling from an exertion she couldn't recall.

But as it stood, all of this was still just...too much. She couldn't go on like this.

  
  
  


It stopped.

Literally just after she thought she couldn't take anymore, a day passed with no lost time. Then another. And another after all.

Instead of finding peace and relishing in her returned sanity, a disquiet simmered in the pit of Ellana's stomach. She was feeling on edge, restless. She'd been so fixated on waiting for the next time she would find herself left askew and used up, that the anticipation had dwindled into a twisted sort of abandonment complex when there ended up being no next time.

It didn't help that her body had become habituated to...whatever had been happening.

And in the flurry of her Inquisitor duties, being sent here and there to do this or that, she hadn't really had time to...relieve herself, either.

So she found herself blinking dazedly at the war table, only vaguely processing the conversation for this meeting. Specifically, her gaze was drawn to the knife hafts sticking from the map. Their shape. Their smoothness. How they would feel inside her--

"Excuse me," Ellana said abruptly, turning as quickly as she could.

Her face must have been flush with color, but luckily none of her advisors were able to ask after her in the her rush to leave. Her pussy was so wet, her folds slipped in glide against one another with each step she stook.

She'd barely made it a few steps out the door before she was stumbling into the wall, rolling until her back was flat against it. It took only a moment for her to check that the door had shut behind her, and then she was hastily shoving a hand down her pants.

Her fingers found home, and Ellana's eyes fell shut at the hum of pleasure as she pushed her smallcloth against the warmth there.

Frantically, she rubbed herself at the tiny sensitive point cresting her lower lips. She bit her tongue, holding in a moan as the relief at touch began building into more need. With her free hand, she untucked her shirt. She needed more. She wanted her nipples toyed with, pulled at. She had to come. She couldn't take it anymore.

Just as she'd gotten her hand to her chest, the war room door opened.

Ellana's eyes flew open in time to lock gazes with Commander Cullen. She froze as he spotted her.

He regarded her with some surprise.

Then, after half a beat, he smiled politely at her, and simply continued on. She blinked bewilderedly after him.

As he passed, Ellana's attention fell upon another figure standing just across the way of Cullen's path. Had someone been standing there...this whole time?

She hadn't seen anyone when she first came out here. His gaze met hers, and with a start, Ellana only managed to remember his name on time.

"Loud," Cole said. He was shaking his head.

He was approaching her and Ellana remained petrified, acutely aware of her hand still being down her pants and pressed against her junk.

"You're so loud. You're not the only one who needs help, but you drown the rest out."

"What are you--" Ellana stammered as Cole had become dreadfully close, stepping between her legs, nearly pinning her where she stood. His hand was at her wrist, tracing down towards her pants line. " _Cole_? What--"

He pushed her hand aside and began touching her, and Ellana's thoughts stopped.

"The ache is too much again," he murmured sympathetically. "Pulling, prying, pulsing liquid fire. It burns, down here."

As he spoke, his fingers moved against her. They skimmed over her smallcloth, pushing friction onto fabric, molding a steady, deft motion into the throb there. He started high, working her folds against her clit and then dipping lower. She had soaked completely through the cloth, by the lewdly wet sound of it. She could smell herself. The scent only grew more apparent as Cole continued.

"Cool, pressed gold to fevered skin," Cole said. "It makes it better, it makes it worse. And the burning leads farther in."

His middle fingers slipped sideways of her cloth, and the bare press of his touch made her gasp. She grasped his sleeve, but that was all the time she had before he was pushing into her.

Ellana cried out. Her head fell against his chest and she shuddered as she stretched open for him. His fingers were longer than hers, and knobby. Her knees wobbled horribly as his middle knuckles passed through. But she was so wet, the only resistance was how swelled she was from arousal. He sunk his hand onto her, until his palm was flush to her clit and she was squirming and gasping.

She met his eyes, trying to find her breath while keeping her voice down. Cole stared back at her.

The next thing she knew, she was collapsed and trembling over Cole's arm, head on his shoulder. She didn't remember opening her mouth, but she was yelling. Her knees had given out completely, and her toes were dragging against the floor as her legs flailed. There was a heat rolling through her, bursting from between her legs. At the center of the throbbing point, her pussy was clenching tight around Cole's fingers.

She'd been coming. She had only just begun building to it, but she was in the middle of coming.

Cole had her pinned to the wall to keep her from falling. He pulled her through the brink, rocking his hand into her.

" _Cole_ ," she tried, but it came out too...erotic. She shook herself. Spoke firmer. "Cole. Why was I...? How did...?"

"It's what you want," he responded, in a casual tone, as if he didn't have her pinned to the wall and in shambles. "You're always wanting. Always calling. Racing like rapids overtaken and whisked away, and wanting someone, anyone, to meet you."

She lost time just then. Didn't she?

Cole's fingers were still easing in and out of her, teasing her hole open taut over his middle knuckles. Ellana writhed against him, moaning.

"This meets you," he said, tucked close. "It helps."

She bit her lip, trying to find her footing. Trying to find some bearing. "Are...are you the one who...?"

Ellana was melting. Stretched full, and rattled to the point she was struggling to breathe. Her whole body felt hot and numb. Her back was flat against the wall, and Cole had one of her legs propped up over his elbow while her other wobbled to support her weight. Cole was moving against her. He was... _inside_ her.

She jarred at the realization. At the thought of Cole's cock being jamming up into her. At the novelty of the shape and feel of it.

"What?" she exclaimed, disoriented. "When...?"

The sudden shift of movement set off a wildfire burst from the tension she hadn't realized was built up. Her pussy spasmed. Her nerves were lighting up. She was coming again. Ellana jolted back with a wavering cry as her vision went askew. Her body shuddered, flooded with bliss.

Cole sank deep into her, letting her grip and grind around him as she rode it out.

"I made you forget," he informed her.

She barely processed the words, rolling her hips to the last waves of her climax. She pushed herself back upright, away from him.

At least she thought she was.

Instead she was yelling out again, wringing her hands into Cole's shirt desperately as she caught herself mid-orgasm again. She was holding fast to him, ankles linked around the back of his waist. He was hilted balls-deep into her as her pussy clung tight around the length of him. He had her squished against the wall, supporting her weight with one hand while his other was sandwiched between them and mashing her throbbing clit between her wet folds.

Ellana shuddered, mouth agape with stuttering noises as she bucked against the motion.

Her hips twisted slightly, sensitivity gaining quickly on her as the height of her pleasure began to subside. But Cole had her pinned securely, his hand slowing but not stopping. Ellana whined, shutting her eyes tight as she shuddered again.

She must have made enough noise to alert someone by now. How had no one walked in on them yet?

"No one will notice," Cole promised. "I won't let them."

Ellana noticed the door to the war room was open. Had Leliana and Josephine gone? Had they simply walked past her, as Cullen did? Had they seen her like this, Cole between her legs and making her yowl?

"I have to keep telling you," Cole sighed.

But Ellana couldn't recall him saying anything of the sort to her ever before. Or ever even showing any kind of interest like _this_ in her or in anyone. She didn't even know he could.

She might have blinked, and then suddenly she was spasming wildly, body flushed with wave after wave of heat. Her puss was convulsing, gushing and clenching around the girth of Cole's cock. He was slamming into her with mindnumbing abandon, making her come over and over. She was wailing as she took it, but Cole's mouth was on hers, muffling her cries and forcing her breaths to his whim as well.

Her shirt had been opened at some point, and she shivered at the rush of cold mountain air on her bare nipples.

A pitiable noise rose in her throat from the overwhelm, and maybe that was why Cole finally slowed. The sensitivity was still too much. He was still grinding into her, his cock was still hard and stretching her wide over its girth. Her pussy felt sloppy around him, leaking and swollen and hot.

Tremors rocked through her frame, every muscle shot with strain. She was struggling to catch her breath.

"Cole," she said, distraught. "I don't.... Why are you...."

"You've forgotten," he said. "That's all."

She had thought he'd said that before as well. Ellana inhaled sharply as he pulled out slightly, just to press back in. He continued this rocking motion, not rough like before but definitely more than grinding at this point. She writhed, gasping, as she opened for him with each slow push. Heat began building between her legs again.

Was that it then? All the lapses in time were actually lapses in memory? It had been Cole fucking her senseless and then making her forget? But why?

He shifted her then, propper her legs up against his shoulders. Ellana yelped, the new position folding her so that it felt as if she were wrapped tighter around him, feeling fuller with him.

He already knew what felt good for her.

"You ask me, is why," he responded to her earlier thought. Was that exasperation she heard? "You keep asking me."

He kissed her, lips against hers nudging her mouth to open for him. When she did, his tongue met hers. In the same breath, he was thrusting his hips forward. She trembled, feeling herself flush warm at the thought of him entering her from two places, prodding into her and leaving his touch on her inside.

It was so familiar. It felt like a comfort, like being welcomed home. Had she really told him to make her forget?

Ellana moaned as his thrusts gained more force.

How long had he been fucking her for? She blearily looked about to note that the shadows around them had shifted. As if in response to her distraction, Cole's movements quickened. She found herself gasping, bracing herself, tightening around his cock and meeting his thrusts this time around.

Ellana placed her hands on his face, framing it, watching him watch her as he took her.

She didn't want to forget anymore. She wanted to stay with him here.

She wanted.... She wanted....

"Do you want my cum inside you again?" Cole asked, as if it were simply the polite thing to do.

Ellana felt her face flush red immediately at the question. Because of what he was asking, because of the thought of Cole spilling into her, because of the implication that he'd done it many times before, and because of how she would answer. It struck her then that Cole could read minds.

He wasn't asking her to know. He was asking her because...because he probably knew it would get her hot.

Everything he was telling her was likely true. She was a pervert, and he was just there being helpful.

"Yes," she admitted finally.

It was the last coherent thought she had before Cole shifted her again, hiking her just a bit higher up against him, and began slamming her so hard she saw sparks behind her eyelids. She might have been yelling again. She _must_ have been yelling again. She was coming, pleasure wrenched from her in vivid bursts.

" _Cole_ ," she called out in a stammer.

He was filling her in the next breath.

Her toes curled as heat flooded her, spilling deep and cramming her full, packed tight and plugged up inside her by his cock. She was still moaning, high and hurt in her throat as it brimmed out around her folds. She rode it out, rolling herself onto him until the tension was full wrung from her body, and she was sated and full.

Cole hummed, touching his forehead to hers. "Last time."

"Last...?" she panted, blinking at him with mild alarm. Then, she realized with some relief that he wasn't talking about the sex. "Oh. _Oh_. I remember again!"

"Yes. We agreed."

"It's not so bad, is it?" She looped her arms over the back of his neck and pulled him close.

He met her wide smile with a pointed look. "It's fine once you've remembered, but when you've forgotten, you're so...confused. And scared. And you say I'm not supposed to help."

Ellana reigned in the urge to pout. "Last time...for now?"

"For a while." Then, as if for the record, "I don't like it."

"I'm sorry," Ellana said immediately, earnest as she could manage. She pulled his face closer so their noses nudged. "And thank you. For indulging me so often."

His gaze had gone downward, to where they were connected. Where cum was leaking out of her. Where he was still hilted deep. "You need more. Don't you?"

Ellana offered a sheepish grin. "What gave it away?"

"Loud," Cole reiterated.

He would have her against that wall for some time longer.


	2. Not The Last Time

Ellana stared at the ceiling as it jarred above her. Or rather, as her vision jarred each time Cole pulled her down onto his cock.

The wet slap each time they met was already too much, too loud as it echoed off the old stone of the hall. It took all of her focus to contain the stuffed whimpers lodged in her throat, and that focus was wavering by the second.

"I told you, it's fine," Cole murmured into her ear. His warm breath drove a shudder down her spine, and the graze of his teeth made her squirm against him. "They won't notice."

And yet, they were right there.

Josephine, Knight-Captain Denam in chains, and the Inquisition soldiers who stayed him in tow were all waiting patiently before the throne. While Ellana had her legs spread wide open, over the span of Cole's knees. He'd removed all her clothes prior, despite her shock and lame resistance, and then he'd touched her until she was fevered and falling quite willingly onto lap. Stretching herself out, desperately, until he was nestled deep in her wanting hole.

"Darting, daring, damning, don't stop, don't stop-- oh, but when have I ever? The dreamers only drink of this daylight, but won't draw direct from its dew." As if to assure her, one of Cole's hands skimmed upward to one of her breasts, toying with the nipple there. Ellana's hips jostled from their rhythm as she gasped, but Cole pulled her down again and guided her back. "Dampening, deafening now. She doesn't realize."

But she did. She was biting down hard on her lip and all the noises she fought to contain in her throat were still leaking from her in bitten staccato.

"That's not the sound I mean," he whispered against the nape of her neck. His teeth grazed alight there, sending a shudder down her spine.

Ellana inhaled sharply as the feeling met the building tension in her groin. She felt her skin flushing with heat, felt the it curl into pinpoint shape where Cole was meeting her hips with rough upward jerks. Once again, her gaze fell upon the dozen people gathered before her with expectant gazes.

Once again, she clamped down on the frenzied bundle of heat coiling below her gut. She shut her eyes, wrenched with embarrassment. But the heat inside her was turning sharp, going taut, prying her open for release.

There were too many people around them, though. Too close. She didn't think she could. But she _needed_ to. Her pussy felt like it was throbbing, clinging greedily to the span of Cole's cock.

"You can," Cole urged her. "It's there. It's just for you."

He brought her down faster, began meeting her with harder thrusts, and by then Ellana's shouts were ringing through the vast hall and barreling off the stone walls. Cole was piercing through her, pounding in so that the shape of him stayed even when he was pulling out, compounded each time he shoved back in.

And then, she peaked. Voice wavering, toes kicking out and then curling back, hips seized, she cusped and was all at once saturated. Cole dragged her through it, pushing and pulling her past each burst. Her pussy was swollen and hot from the raw of it. She felt herself gushing, squeezing in convulsions around Cole's cock. Until finally, it began to subside, the echoes of it still scattering through her limbs. She dropped against him, gasping for breath.

"You were shining, just then, so bright, so bare," Cole observed with some astonishment. And yet, he didn't allow her to slow at all. "So much pressure still, winding, scattered-- I just want to do what's right-- But you _are_. You must see that. You must."

As he spoke, he drove up into her still-sensitive, sloppy hole. Ellana heaved a sigh, but it came out nearly like a sob as she opened for him, as he pried her wide.

"It's alright." Cole leaned her back so that their cheeks to touch. His lips brushed the hot blush of her cheeks. "It's not a bad thing to be nervous."

His free hand dipped past her hip bone, between her thighs.

Ellana's mouth fell wide open as his fingers began to press and stroke her clit, rolling it under the cushioned heat of her swollen folds. The tension shot right up to her head, flooding her with heat as it paved through her. She arched backwards. When she felt Cole's lips on her jaw, she turned her head to kiss him in full.

"Spring, summer-- autumn, and back-- to spring, and summer again," he said in the small breaks between their mouths. She could only breathe and continue to draw him to her, press her tongue on his at every other chance afforded. Until she was only moaning. And barely, she heard him still. "There is no winter with you."

His arm was curled over her torso, palming her breast there and twisting the nipple just enough to set off a flitting cast of pleasure humming through her. She vocalised it in breathy sounds, writhing in his lap. His was still molding the skin over her clit with his other hand, nudging her to continue to shift her weight and fuck herself on his cock. The sensations were consuming her, smothering out any legible thought.

"Cole...." Ellana was lost to him. "Ar sumeil-- d-dar garas nadas _heem_ \--"

"I will," he promised.

The intensity caught her mid-thrust, and then she was seizing with a surging rush of heat that rolled hot through her nerves. By the time, Cole was hilted, her pussy was spasming around him in frantic abandon. Her mind had gone blank. She must have been crying out, but for a moment in delicious oblivion, all she heard was ringing in her ears.

She was still coming when she felt him spilling into her, soothing the emptied ache there with thick, rushing warmth. Ellana gasped, hands twitching where they hovered reflexively over her pussy as it began to brim. Then his cum was pushing out, spilling past her folds and through her fingers as he continued shooting his full load into her.

She collapsed against him, the last waves of her orgasm scattering as Cole pulsed right behind her.

Ellana whined, feeling him pull out slightly, only to have her eyes roll back as he shoved right back in, forcing the last of himself deep in.

She found herself staring at the ceiling again. This time, rather than jarring, it only swam in and out of focus and as she watched, panting and boneless.

"It's time," Cole prompted her gently. His hand ran down her thigh to spur her.

Wearily, Ellana lifted her head. The group was now organized more presentably before her. And she couldn't really even remember why she should have felt more insecure.

"I--" Ellana inhaled sharply as Cole chose that particular moment to tug himself out of her.

She shuddered as his cum began pushing free as well, outward through her sore, swollen puss lips. A lewd amount ended up on the floor.

"Inquisitor?" Josephine addressed, glancing at her from behind her notes. "Are you ready?"

Ellana met her gaze, and wondered what she saw. Wondered exactly what Cole was inhibiting from notice that the prim and proper ambassador was regarding her still so formally, when Ellana herself knew she was a drooling, wet-eyed mess with her used pussy on full display.

"I'll commence judgment now," she said, hoarsely.

  
  


She had always had this problem.

Back in the clan, it just about ruined her. She constantly fell upon half-arsed reasons to excuse herself from the eyes and ears of others to rub herself off in her aravel, or to touch herself while leaned against a tree on wobbling knees, or to relent and lay down in the thick of the brush and make herself come over and over.

Until she didn't feel anxious, or restless, or angry, or anything but pleasant anymore.

It was the one comfort she could always count on, and it was what she always turned to whenever she did feel stressed. And the habit had simply stuck.

And so, upon being recruited by the Inquisition, she'd felt like she'd been in a constant state of _on_ . Between this brand of magic making claim on her left hand, to seemingly running just about everywhere to get as much as she could done in a day, to being told bad news after complication after poor development-- it was all Ellana could do to duck behind a corner and frantically touch the tension away so that she could feel like she could _breathe_ again.

Her body was conditioned to it at this point. Being chronically stressed now left her perpetually soaked and wanting, nearly dizzy from it if she didn't get herself off often enough.

So when they gained a new ally in the form of a newly-corporeal Spirit being who could pick up on everything everyone wasn't saying, Ellana had been existing with her heart in her throat awaiting his declaration of what happened to be on _her_ mind all the time.

By some grace of fortune, it never happened.

Instead, something else happened. Because if there was one truth Ellana had learned to accept about her life, it was that things could never be simple....

  
  


_Before._

Ellana had balled her sheets up, shoving them into her mouth to muffle the final, drawn-out groan as she came. 

She bucked into her hand, pressing fast upon the last flux of pleasure from the throb between her legs, until the knot in her groin unwound. Her hand dropped and she slumped into her bed, panting. She still had to get dressed. She'd nearly made it out of bed that time-- got as far as rolling onto her hands and knees before the heat struck her again. It would be time for the morning brief soon, and she couldn't be late.

There was too much to _do_.

She had thought her obligation would end with sealing the Breach. Instead, she'd found her responsibility had mounted. Without so much as being asked privately, she'd be marched in front of a crowd and propositioned with the role of Inquisitor. How does one refuse? Especially one Dalish who would've had no other option?

And now she was being tasked left and right, being put on a pedestal and worshipped as an idol, while disaster nested on the horizon at her front and the fate of the world at her back. It was all so insane to her.

Tension was pooling just below her tummy again, hot and aching.

There was just...too much to do. How was she going to do it all?

Ellana shut her eyes and let out a pitiful whine, cramping hand reaching for her dripping folds once more.

At that point, she was barely sharp enough to be able to register a draft of cool air. If she had, she might have just assumed it was the frigid mountain breeze. Because they'd even gone so far as to give her this too-large, too-void room at the top of the tower, and it only made her feel more propped up and alone--

But all the same, as two long, knob-knuckled fingers prodded into her entrance, Ellana gasped and jolted up. The fingers were already sinking wholly inside of her before she could get too far. Instead, the pleasure and shock of the sudden invasive touch her hole was stretching around had her frozen in place.

She looked behind her.

"C-Cole?" she asked, mind lighting up with panic, embarrassment, and caught between wanting to pull away and wanting to keep his fingers right _there_.

"You were calling," he told her, with some hesitance, as if he didn't know what to make of the situation either. "You were needing. You've _been_ needing. Kneading. Nestling. Notched, and then nulled, but it was all for naught, made anew. I don't know if I can help."

" _Oh_ \--"

He was moving his hand, pulling out slightly, only to push in again, slow, testing.

Lavellan's face dropped back onto her pillow as a fretful noise peeled from her throat. Normally, she'd only rub herself for expediency. It had been a while since she'd stuck anything _in_.

Cole's fingers were cool to the touch, and larger both in length and width to her own despite being so boney. And the swell of his knuckles from the rest of his thin fingers only served to tease more stretch from her, ridged against her insides as they pushed in and out.

They felt so good....

"Sunlight glancing off an angled blade. I can find the shine, and make it stay." Cole's fingers twisted slightly before dipping in again. And as they went, they hit a friction that sent a tremor down her thighs.

Lavellan was making all sorts of noises she normally didn't when she just touched herself. Despite having come so many times that morning, the entirely new sensation of Cole touching her was sending her to the brink again. Was this just what spirits did? Or was this what Cole did, when he--

Lavellan bit down on a yelp, biting her pillow and twisting her toes into the sheets as Cole's fingers pressed forward and downward.

\--when he helped?

"I've never helped anyone this way before," he answered her aloud.

She didn't know why, but that released a tightness in her chest then. She managed to open her eyes, turning her head slightly just so she was able to see him perched at her side. It was his right hand burrowed in her, so snug that she could count each rise of his knuckles just by the _feel_.

Cole caught her glance then. A pale-blue stare that seemed like it passed through her, piercing in like his fingers were. At that same moment, his fingers began tapping forward, driving into that sensitive bunch of nerves inside her.

Lavellan's eyes fell shut and she was moaning frantically into her pillow.

"This is working," Cole remarked, with a dissonant excitement. "Waking, whetting, whittling away every woe, _want it please_ \--"

Ellana was clutching at her bedsheets, holding on for dear life as he worked her pussy wet. Her folds swelled hot around his fingers, clinging snug around him. Her knees spread farther across the mattress for him. Her toes dug into the sheets as the pleasure began forming into a pinching sensation. She was clenching up, heat forming into a pinpoint pressure. Ellana gnawed into her pillow, chin soaked from drool as she desperately muffled a squeal.

She reached haphazardly, hand still cramped from earlier, for her clit.

Before she could make contact, Cole did. With his free hand, he traced her wet, puffed folds to the crest and pressed his fingers there.

The yell Ellana let out was wild, fluctuating on unsteady breaths. She felt herself spasm, squeezing Cole's fingers so tight that she felt his knuckles slip against each other, and then it burst from her in a wave of heat that pulled from her groin. She heard the wet squelch, could feel the warmth dripping down her shaking thighs.

Cole moved her through it, slowing his touch and letting her ride down with him, until her grip on his fingers relaxed as she collapsed wholly onto the bed, panting and drenched and dizzy.

"Drained, desperate. Daunted, but not diluted. Draped over, and the shape of it is there, demanding debt now." Cole began tugging his fingers out. "A different piece to deal the doling."

He was careful, gentle. But Ellana's hole was still clung tight to him, even as he eased from her she could feel her pussy lips pulling outward with him. She shut her eyes and shuddered. She was practically boneless, tingles still spreading through her nerves in an after ache.

Only as she began to remember herself did she move to cover herself, despite it being too late.

"Don't be embarrassed," Cole said, grabbing her wrist with a featherlight touch. "I don't mind."

Ellana realized his hand was wet, and upon a thought further on that, realized it had been the hand that he used to...to.... _To_. Her face must have been so red with how hot it felt now.

Cole was gazing at her quietly, weighing the situation himself. Then, he said, "You needed help. You still need it."

"I don't know if you should help me with this," Ellana protested lamely.

"What will help you know?"

"What?"

The next thing she knew, he had pulled himself over her, bending over her in a span that eclipsed the room from her. It made her feel sheltered. Protected. He swept his hands over the span of the sheets, wiping them. Likely, he had perceived the wetness on them before had bothered her, though maybe he didn't fully comprehend the reason yet.

It was for the better, because then he was taking her face in his hands, and peering into her eyes, as if he could find an answer there. He probably could.

Then, he was kissing her.

Ellana let out a tiny, stunned sigh at the press of his lips. His tongue sought the opportunity to slip past hers. She was so stunned at the perfection of it, of how it was exactly the way she longed to be kissed, that she could only think of taking him in.

"Melting, melding, the way morning light warms stones or moonlight warms dreams, a murmur meant for me," Cole spoke in the slight space between them when they broke apart. "He's sweet."

At that, Ellana found herself averting her gaze, flustered all over again.

"You're feeling nice things right now, and the burning is less," Cole went on, nudging his nose to hers. "Does that help you know?"

If only he knew that the things she was feeling weren't just nice. Because he'd just finger fucked her, and now he had his mouth on her and was saying soft things that were keeping a steady blush on her skin....

"Ah," Cole said then, as if he got it.

Right. She'd forgotten who she was thinking thoughts around.

He sat up from her. Ellana shivered at the sudden rush of air upon her. She considered her options. Because, the responsible thing to do was to stop this, right? Especially now that she had an important job as, well, _leader of the Inquisition_.

Sure, she liked Cole well enough. He wasn't bad on the eyes. But she was sure that him being a Spirit would complicate things. And this was a lot to take-- and oh, okay-- speaking of a lot to take....

There was Cole, having taken his clothes off. His hat and armor were strewn on the floor, beside the bed. He'd been staring at his underwear with some perplexity before pulling them down from his hips. And Ellana...wasn't sure what she'd been expecting. Cole met her gaze with his own.

"I didn't know they came off," he said.

Honestly, she hadn't either. In underwear was as far as she'd ever seen Cole.

Sharing a camp meant she'd seen just about every one of her companions in various states of undress, and they her. But it was one thing to see body parts, and another thing to see _this_ body part. Standing fully erect and even leaking at the tip.

While she was still processing the sight, Cole was turning her over, crawling between her knees. He crouched over her, a cover from the world stretched above. She felt herself turning a heated red once again as the underside of his cock pressed firm against her entrance, gliding between her aching, wet folds, coating itself on her.

Even that had her biting back a clogged whine. It felt like he was already fucking her, with how receptive her body was to it. But she still could barely wrap her mind around it. Cole...could do this? He was a spirit, wasn't he? There must have been rules to this. Magic-related things usually had consequences; she bore the mark of one on her left hand. For instance, was this even allowed? Would _he_ be alright?

"I'm fine. And you are, too." As Cole spoke, she turned to him, and he took her mouth with his own. And if that didn't stop her thoughts in their tracks near immediately, he began pushing into her.

Ellana gasped at the intrusion.

Granted, it had been a while since she'd even stuck her own fingers inside herself. That had to have been why he felt so _huge_.

"It's not really mine though," Cole explained.

He sunk in more of himself and Ellana yelped as she was stretched to the brink. She was gasping for breath, trying to relax as she was pried open.

Cole went on, conversationally. "I don't think it's really _Cole's_ , either."

More of him entered, filling her, pulling her hole taut around his girth. A low whine escaped her then as she arched, trying to find a position that could better accommodate him. She had her knees spread as far as they would go, had her hips angled so that should have allowed access with little resistance. _Should_ have.

"It's here because it's what you needed, I think." Cole paused, giving her a moment to adjust to his size.

He dipped down and kissed the corner of her mouth gently, and she returned it with her lips open, eager for the distraction. Cole's hand found hers tangled in the sheets, and wound his fingers with her so that she clung to him instead. And for a moment, they just kissed.

She began to relax, but she knew what was to happen next. When Cole pushed forward, hilting his cock wholly inside her, she threw herself back and cried out.

He was so hard, had her helpless and stretched so taut that she couldn't even clench. His cock was simply holding her pussy open.

His voice was in her ear. "Wouldn't that make this...yours?"

Ellana thought she might break. Cole ground against her then, a motion that shaped the lewdest squelching noise from their connection and sent an maddening point of contact onto her clit. She squeaked, tension and heat weaving together and forming a tight coil in her groin. Her fingers squirmed in Cole's grip, but he kept her hand pinned.

His other hand skimmed up her tummy, sending a fluttery tickle through her nerves, before shocking her into a moan when it found her breast.

" _Cole_ ," she moaned. She felt herself melting away, melting into him. "H-How are you doing this? How do you know what to do? What I want?"

She shuddered at the feel of his wet mouth on her exposed throat, at his tongue tracing a circle of suction over her jugular and making her pulse race before his teeth bit down gently.

The sensation went straight to her pussy and her eyes rolled back.

"You're telling me. You're very loud."

Ellana blinked for a moment, pondering that. She knew she was being noisy, but she didn't think she was being _loud_.

"Not that way," Cole assured her. But then his hand started pinching her nipple, rolling and tugging. He started grinding against her more forcefully, sandwiching her clit between them in a hot roil of sensation. She was crying out, mouth agape, vision going askew. She heard Cole say, "Both ways, I suppose."

Then, he was pushing in deep, opening her wide, squeezing her clit in a hot, tight little vice. Ellana's eyes shot open, only to shut tightly as the pressure began bursting, throbbing, cleaving through her. If she hadn't thought she was loud before, she knew she was loud as she came. Her pussy tried to clench, but could find no give around Cole's cock; he kept her held open as she came frantically around him.

Ellana was still in the throes of it when Cole's mouth found hers. It was only then that she realized how tight she'd been clutching his hand. She squirmed as the last of it was wrung out of her, leaving her panting.

Before she could begin winding down though, Cole was shifting her. He shrugged under her legs so that they were propped against his shoulders and he proceeded to bear his weight down upon her, folding her in half and trapping her against the mattress. That was her only warning before he began thrusting into her. Ellana yelled out, jerking at the sudden change of movement.

She tried to turn her gaze to Cole, but found his open, peering gaze fixed on her almost too much to hold.

"It's still burning," he told her, bringing his hips upon hers, over and over. "I can hear it. I can hear you. I can _help_ you."

Creators.... Ellana shut her eyes as pleasure began ringing through her again. She clasped his hand tight as the rining began mounting each time he moved through her, as coiled tension began to swell again in her groin. With a whine, she used her free hand to reach for him.

"H-help me, Cole," she pleaded, holding his face as he fucked her.

He must have received her thought, because his expression changed to one of conviction.

"I don't know if I'm able to do _that_ ," he admitted. "But I'll try."

With that, his thrusts came faster, and harder. He was ramming himself into her so that she could hear the wet slaps of it falling in time to the pulse in her ears. She was being run through, crashed into herself again and again to the point she could barely breathe.

"Help me!" she was moaning, senseless save for the feeling of him pounding her pussy into a sloppy mess. "Help me! Help me! _Cole_ , help--"

She was undone again, sent spiraling in a world of hot bliss. Her pussy throbbed and the pleasure flashed through her, lighting up her nerves and making her wail. She was writhing, the heat of it unspooling deliciously and wrapping around her limbs instead.

And then, she felt it. Felt _him_. Felt him fal--

"--ling off, far from near, fickle, feinting, fiery, it's _forcing_." Cole heaved forward, ramming his cock deep into her coming pussy as his full weight fell upon her.

He was spilling inside her, flooding her, filling her up. Ellana, pinned under his weight, could do nothing but take it all as it pushed for room around Cole's sunken girth and stretched her even more, brimming out in a rush of heat. She felt Cole's cock pulse and he pressed himself flush against her to trap it, so that she could feel him pouring into her.

Ellana was gasping for breath, blinking stars from her eyes, when it finally subsided. Cole eased his weight off of her only slightly, so she could breathe easier, but stayed with her, stayed within her.

When she glanced at him, he seemed wholly fixated on her, eyes wide and lips parted.

"I see you," he whispered, in a husky sort of way that felt full of heat when the rest of him was still cool.

It made her flush with embarrassment to think about what he saw, when he had her legs over his shoulders, and his cum leaking from her puss, and her sloppy and boneless under him.

"I see you, too," she replied hoarsely, not sure how else to respond.

She reached for his face. She barely had to do much else beyond that gesture, before he was pressing his mouth to hers, once again in that perfect way.

She sighed against the rush of his lips, thumbing his cheek, before falling back against her bed.

"I'm running late," she said regretfully.

With clarity returning, so did the rest of her newfound responsibilities. She had a job to do. A faction to run. Anxiety began fraying her nerves again, sending a nervous tingle through her.

Cole regarded her with that unreadable, penetrative stare.

Before Ellana could elaborate that he needed to get off of her, he was shifting her around so that she was laid out sideways. Then, he was fucking her, fucking all the cum he'd shot into her even deeper in, leaning into her so that the leg he'd kept on his shoulder was splitting her wide open for him, and she could barely hear his response over the sound of her own yelling.

" _Again_ ," he countered. "As many times as it takes."

She'd forgotten Cole could read minds.

So. That was how it had started.

  
  



	3. Not For Some Time

It was still difficult to say whether or not their new relationship was a good thing. On the one hand, he did in fact help her with her chronic masturbation problem.

He fucked her often, and for as long as she needed before all the tension in her body dissipated and she was able to proceed with her task work again. On the other hand, she began to wonder if maybe it was feeding a different compulsion; since she was starting to feel like the more he 'helped', the more she needed him.

"And yet, that's what we do even further," he had told her at one point, pulling on her hips, grinding her against him so that she could only toss her head back and take him. "Out, then back. A rhythm within a rhythm, within a greater rhythm still with the times between. Out, then back. Always back. Again, again, again."

Case in point, this would be their first time spent apart since this all began. It was just how logistics worked out. Varric, Cassandra, and Vivienne all had things that needed doing in the Hinterlands. Any larger a party and it would have cut into their travel efficiency.

So she'd left Cole at Skyhold without thinking much of it. She remembered spotting his silhouette in the battlements as the four of them made their departure. She'd waved.

And then, she proceeded to regret leaving him behind, more than she expected to.

  
  
  


The aching between her legs had become an unbearable, hot throb by the first night. All day between walking from point to point, fending off all manner of creatures, and sealing rifts, Ellana had no time to herself to touch for the entire day. Upon nightfall, she'd been clumsy with helping to set up camp, and turned in much earlier than the others to finally relieve herself properly.

It was to no avail.

She came, hard and plenty, over and over. But it only made the heat inside her grow. Her hands felt nothing like Cole. They did not resemble his touch, his mouth, his cock.

Desperate, biting her lip and nesting under the cover of her blankets, she kept trying. Until her hand began cramping, until her bedding had a wet spot soaked through, until Vivienne finally entered the tent and Ellana forced herself to stop and go to sleep.

The second day was even worse. So was the third. By the fourth night, she didn't bother touching; she cried, and felt pathetic and whorish.

By the fifth day, on the way back to Skyhold, she was delirious.

"You've been overworked," Cassandra said apologetically as she observed the shadows around Ellana's eyes. "We should have returned sooner."

Cassandra was fierce-faced and gorgeous, with muscles that Ellana saw all the divuts of under firelight. The longer they held gazes with one another, the more Ellana felt urged to taste the pink plump of her lips that only rarely smiled. If she asked, if she  _ begged _ , would Cassandra lay with her? Would the burning in her go away then?

"I tried to tell you, Seeker," Varric piped up. "She's been out of it since we left."

Ellana shuddered at his voice. Varric, whose fingers were deft and quick. Would they move as fluidly over her as they did on Bianca? Would his mouth, so smooth on word, be just as cleverly used elseways? What would he say if she straddled his face? Maybe...he wouldn't touch her at all, and simply tell her what to do and how to do it.

"Do try not to collapse entirely before we get back, my dear," Vivienne said. "It would ruin the picturesque return of triumph that's expected of us."

At the end of her jest, she set an encouraging hand upon Ellana's arm.

It was like an electric shock, shot straight through to her groin. Ellana sighed hotly, arching just a bit to dip herself against her saddle. Vivienne's hand withdrew hastily. When Ellana met her eyes, the other woman's gaze on her was bewildered. Ellana could only stare back in question. She hadn't thought her reaction had been too obvious.

Or...had Vivienne felt it too?

Vivienne looked away, as if she knew what Ellana was wondering.

"That is to say...it would serve morale much better to see the Inquisitor in good health," Vivienne went on conversationally.

She didn't come quite so close to Ellana again.

  
  
  


Ellana was dizzy with want as they passed through Skyhold's gates. She knew her trousers were ruined, but couldn't stop grinding into her saddle as she scanned the area frantically.

Her mind was hazy. Her body felt slow.

She dismounted, knees wobbling under her.

And then Cole was there, coming up from behind her taking her into his arms.

"You're calling so loudly," Cole told her, as he skimmed his hand down the front of her trousers.

It found its place, cool fingers slotting against the hot, swollen flesh of her cunt, and Ellana cried out as she bucked forward desperately.

"Even as you were leaving, you were calling." His fingers were sliding over the dripping mess of her folds, making her tremble and squirm. "I knew you would get louder the longer you were gone, but you said I wasn't supposed to follow."

"I'm sorry," Ellana sobbed, pulling for him, clinging to him as she pushed against his hand. "I'm sorry."

"No, but that's not right.... That's not what you should be."

He flexed his wrist, pushing firmer against her pussy lips, grinding her wet folds against the hot ache of her hole. He rolled his touch, teasing at the hot drip before sweeping back forward to the throbbing pinpoint of her clit. Ellana gasped and gaped. The question she would've asked was lost in the fringes of her peak.

_ What should I be? _

Cole's voice went low in her ear. "You're nearly there. You're screaming now."

Around them, the stablehands were leading the horses away. Cassandra was giving a brief to an Inquisition soldier to relay to Cullen, while Varric was already climbing the stairs to the main hall. It was Vivienne who lingered, who-- strange enough-- seemed to be staring. Ellana blinked at her. Could she see--?

Then, Cole's fingers slid his fingers deep into her.

She arched wildly into him, and fell undone. Her clit pulsed to vivid life in sync with her pussy clenched fast to Cole's embedded fingers. Her toes had slid out on the wet grass from under her, and the sag of her weight hinged her deeper onto his hand.

Ellana could barely gather a moan as her pleasure spilled out in a rolling twinge around Cole's fingers. She fell limp against him, trying to regain her footing with wobbly knees.

She slid a hand up to tilt Cole's face to her, and he kissed her as the worst of the heat passed.

"Crying in the dark, empty, lonely,  _ make me full again _ ," Cole recalled, still rocking his hand slowly into her. "Voice like a vast void, vouching and vying for view."

She was twinging around him, already stirring back into tension. Her limbs were beginning to flex in response. Warmth was building again in the friction where he touched.

"Please, Cole, please," she whimpered as his fingers stretched her. "Yes... _ yes _ ."

His other hand had slid under her shirt, and she sighed tightly when she felt it ghost over her breast. She'd missed this. She'd craved it so much. The feel of his touch in her and over her, the taut stretch of her pussy over his knuckles as he fucked her with his fingers.

The hand on her breast began thumbing her nipple, making her flinch from the sudden stimulation. She bit her lip and keened, but he held her fast in place. Soon the sensation began to meld with the one between her legs, where his fingers soaked themselves in her lewd hole. Ellana trembled and exhaled around the noises building at the back of her throat, feeling herself winding tight again.

"It's strange, that it never goes all the way away," he remarked, maybe to no one in particular since she knew he didn't expect her to respond to him.

The fingers in her began that tapping sensation that drove her into frenzy. " _ Oh _ \-- Cole--!"

"You're always wanting. Always needing." His touch became firm, more insistent.

Ellana's hips drove forward. "Help me. Help me."

She heard herself wet his fingers before she felt herself break. And then she was broken and made anew all in the same moment. Pleasure jolted through her body in a rolling succession of numbing flux.

She was shouting into the open air of the courtyard, Cole's fingers crooked deep into her and prodding her for more. He had her clit wedged in the cleft of his fingers, pressing into and tugging it each time he filled her hole. His other hand had moved to her other breast, refreshing her with new sensitivity.

He wasn't stopping, and neither was each new crest of bliss he pulled out of her. He was trapping her there, on that high of overwhelm, forcing her to peak and wet herself on him continuously in body-wracked spasms of heat and tension.

Finally, Ellana managed to touch his hand, touch his thoughts. Too much.

He stopped.

She collapsed against him, still feeling herself pulsing fast against his fingers. Her eyes fluttered as she struggled to catch her breath. Cole was kissing her behind the ear, then under her jaw, down her neck.... She could turn her head only slightly, so he kissed the corner of her mouth.

"See you," he whispered. His voice soothed something in her that she'd never before thought needed soothing. "See you."

He tugged his fingers out from her and she shuddered, already missing them. Catching his eye, she opened her mouth, sticking her tongue out only slightly.

Cole's expression never really changed much, but sometimes, there was a sort of vibe he would cast out. The one he sent now put tingles in her spine. He placed his used fingers on her tongue and she sucked them clean for him, tasting herself on his skin as she held his gaze. He tugged them back against the same resistance her pussy had.

"Don't worry," he assured her. "I know you were gone a while, but you're here now. And I'm here, too."

Ellana was more than appreciative of times like this when she didn't have to use words to communicate exactly what she needed. Cole just understood. He undid the belts on her, the various harnesses, opened her pants and pushed them down.

Only as she turned around was she able to notice how low he'd had to bend to kiss her, and the thought made her smile.

"Is that hard on your knees?" she asked, winding her arms around his neck as she kicked off a boot and held her bare foot above the ground.

He blinked at her. "Which ones are my knees?"

Ellana just laughed. She was still giggling when they pried one of her legs free of her trousers, him holding the pant leg while she pulled her leg out. He kept her supported against him, as she undid his trousers and was rewarded with her hands full of the hard girth of his warm cock.

Immediately her groin felt flooded with heat.

"These knees are fine," Cole finally informed her, having figured it out after a moment of poking around her thoughts.

He shifted her closer to him, guiding his cock so that it slipped and smeared against her to tease. Then, he held it firm and pushed in. A plaintive sound escaped Ellana. It dragged as he pulled her close, sinking the rest of himself in her.

Cole picked up her other leg, and heaved her up against him. As the rest of him pushed in deep to the hilt, Ellana let out a low moan, wanton and dirty even to her own ears. She was so full, stretched wide open. Cole bucked into her, once to get a feel for the field of motion, and Ellana cried out as heat pooled below her stomach.

Five days. She couldn't believe she'd even made it to five days without this.

"Her own fingers only agitate the ache that ails her," Cole murmured against her ear. "She needed help for so long.... I'm giving it now. Do you feel it?"

She embraced him with a sigh, wrapping her legs around his waist as he fucked her.

Cole nudged her cheek with his lips, and she turned to receive his kiss in full. As his tongue met hers, a resonance burst in her chest and spread down her spine. She opened for him, rolled her tongue against his as she rolled her hips.

She felt one of his hands skim inward on her cheek, into the cleft of her ass. His finger pressed against the hole there, pushing slightly. It sent a tickle through her, and she squirmed. It would have been enough; the warm tingle added an edge to the pleasure she already felt from his cock in her pussy. But then, his finger pushed in.

The sensation set a spark in her groin and she inhaled sharply, only for him to join their mouths again.

Her entire lower area had been so slicked with cum from the both of them that it provided ample lube for his finger to slip further in. Ellana whined as her arse hole stretched open for it. She had  _ never _ played with her ass before. Having Cole fingering her there sent a leaping feeling in her pussy.

She fell against him, moaning into his mouth, as his finger began pulsing into her. He rocked his hips, churning her pussy as well.

Both her holes being filled felt heavenly. Heat was pooling in her body, coiling into tension. She curled her legs around Cole's back, rolling her hips in time to his rhythm. Her hands were holding his shoulders to help support her as she moved, tempo increasing with the swelling ache of her pussy. Just as she thought it couldn't get better, Cole used his other hand to undo her shirt, exposing her breasts.

As if she hadn't been at his complete mercy before, Ellana was unhinged with sensation now. She arched to his touch, her skin flushing hot with bloodrush as her bare nipples brushed against his shirt.

_ Oh, Creators, _ she thought, eyelids fluttering.

She was nearly there. Cole opened her mouth wider with his and lapped at the noises leaving her throat.

Then his thrusts gained sudden momentum. He crooked his hips, sending his cock up into her at an angle that felt like light flashes inside of her. She was being pried open, taking him in through three holes; her pussy was crammed full of his cock, her arse hole was being fingered, and her mouth drooled against his as he pushed her jaws apart and tasted her. The flashes turned to throbs. The throbs turned into twinges.

_ Come, _ a voice inside her head told her.

Ellana seized into it, twisting as pleasure flung through her nerves in override. Her pussy clenched in wet pulses, wringing tight around the girth of Cole's cock. She was crying out against his mouth as her climax seared through her, burning outward through her.

Her fingers dug into his shoulders and her toes curled. She rolled her hips a last time before the orgasm released her, but then Cole was ramming his cock up into her, a final deep thrust. He kept her captured in a kiss as he shot his load.

Ellana moaned, trembling from strain, as his cum splashed hot inside her and filled her up.

She clung to him as she caught her breath, while Cole waited patiently for the shakes and sensitivity to ease and held her steady against him. As the desperation finally began to quell, she remembered. Vivienne.

The other woman had gone, but Ellana still wondered...had she somehow been able to see them? Would she bring it up the next time they talked?

Cole began grinding against her again, before she could speculate anymore.


	4. Not The Best Time

Ellana had just started to regain her breath when he began moving in her again. Though they sat upright, she was limp, draped against him with all the hold of a thin sheet ready to fall away with the slightest tilt. But he was careful. Cole was always careful with her.

She made an appreciative hum nestled in her throat, as he pressed them against each other. The area where they were connected was warming with friction again, sending a trill of sparks over her skin.

She was slick with perspiration, and he was too. Her arms slid against his shoulders as she held herself to him.

"Make me forget again," she requested, pressing a soft kiss to his jaw bone.

It had been long enough since the last time, hadn't it? She wanted to forget again, to feel that sense of clueless overwhelm. Not only, but to go even beyond that. Because she knew it'd be fine. Because she was safe with him.

"You're not saying all of it," Cole noted. When he pulled back so that they could lock gazes, she saw some hesitance. But then he said, "Alright."

He knew better than to tell her when. But she wasn't even thinking of it anymore as he began rocking himself into her, sinking in deep and sweet.

  
  


Laughter and whistles erupted as she brought her mug down to the counter with a resounding clatter. Lightheaded but grinning, she wiped her chin off the back of her sleeve as everyone else made calls for the next round.

"So?" Bull asked, for the umpteenth time that night.

He was swaying upon his chair, wearing a smile lopsided in the tell-tale way one's face does when they're quite drunk. It had taken multiple kegs and several bottles of a certain Qunari import that he hadn't offered to share, but Ellana was tickled to see him break this much reservation in front of her for the first time.

"Told you before, you big oaf, they're great," she replied, leaning heavily against their table. And despite it only being her third glass, her own reservations might have gained more leniency than she'd intended for the night.

Bull had been asking her to come drink with him and his Chargers for a while now, for formal introductions-- though nothing about it was formal at all-- but she hadn't been able to find the time before. Oddly enough, when she tried to think about what had been occupying so much of her time lately, her mind could only draw a blank.

Oh, well.

"Something special, am I right?" Bull went on. "What'd I tell you? No better company around to help blaze the Inquisition trail."

"No better," Ellana agreed, and then hiccuped. She felt warm, loose. There was a cool prickle, like someone's breath at the back of her neck, that made her shiver. Must have been some kind of draft in here.

"Not gonna lie, though, I was expecting worse when 'answering Andraste's call' as those recruitment posters put it." Bull snorted. "You ought to get on Josephine about changing those."

Ellana laughed. "I already have. And...."

She was aware of a pleasant sensation, the warmth from before except building. Concentrating. She blinked, trying to find focus through the haze of alcohol in her system. Her chest. The sensation was centered at her chest, caressing. Ellana looked down, but saw nothing amiss.

"And?" Bull prompted.

"And, you know what she said?" Ellana continued, recovering.

"Hm?"

"She--"

A teasing motion, gliding over where her nipples were. Ellana sucked in a breath, again looking down at her shirt. But there was nothing there.

She figured that her clothes must have been shifting weird, though she couldn't reason out how. Then again, she was drunk. And her nipples had always been sensitive. And she was drunk. That was why she was beginning to feel so warm. It was just her being drunk.

"Boss?"

Ellana looked up and met the Iron Bull's eyes sheepishly. She shook her head, as if trying to shake loose of how she was beginning to feel too good now. "Um. What was I...?"

Hands. That was what it felt like. It felt like someone's hands were on her breasts, palms gently rolling them and finger tips teasing the sensitive flesh of her nipples into tight little nubs. Her thighs drifted together reflexively as wetness began to form between them. Was she imagining all of this?

"Josephine."

Ellana's eyes snapped back to Bull who was watching her, still waiting on her. "J-Josie?"

She squeaked as the hands slid under her shirt, skimming upwards on her ticklish tummy. Then her mouth fell open as the touch was upon her bare skin. It pooled the flesh of her breasts in its grasp, and stroked circles around her nipples. Ellana reached up to try and stop it, but her hands couldn't find anything to grip. Whatever was touching her, she was at its complete mercy. She couldn't just be imagining this, was she?

"Bull--" Ellana tried to say.

But the Iron Bull had turned away from her and was now speaking to Cabot, ordering another round of drink.

Ellana tried to slip away, but something was blocking her in. Whatever the touch was, it was as if it was wrapped around her, effectively trapping her. Then, it pushed her shirt all the way up.

"No!" Ellana gasped as cool air flooded around her exposed breasts.

Then the touch began pinching and tugging at her nipples, rolling them between its fingers-- what could have been fingers or could have been something else entirely, but either way it sent a rolling wave of pleasure through her body. This can't have just been her imagination.

"Someone," Ellana called out, looking around herself desperately despite feeling outrageously embarrassed at being so exposed.

But it was as if no one was even realizing what was happening to her. They were carrying on, jeering and drinking and egging one another on. It was as if they couldn't even see her.

What was going on?

The touch changed then. One of the hands on her chest drifted. It was replaced by what felt like a  _ mouth _ . It kissed her skin, grazed its teeth against her skin, and then traced its tongue around her nipple. Ellana's body jerked at the initial contact. Then the mouth pulled her nipple in, wrapping it in warm, wet suction.

"Oh,  _ no _ ," she keened as she reflexively pushed her chest against it. "No, don't...."

It released her momentarily. She shivered at the rush of cold air around her wettened skin, but then the mouth closed around her other nipple, while a hand replaced where it had been on her other breast. Ellana found herself whimpering as the sensation won her, weaving through her nerves and lacing with the alcohol, loosening her in most places and tensing her in others.

No, but it didn't make sense. Was it some kind of magic?

Lamely, she mustered the wherewithal to try and push away...whatever it was. It was like trying to push away fog, nearly. She thought she could make out clothes, the shape of a person, but then the feeling would pass and she'd be pushing against nothing.

The mouth left her chest, and before she could begin to wonder where it had gone to, it was against her own mouth. Lips were on hers, nudging her open, and something like a tongue slipped through. Ellana made a noise of protest before the lips sealed the sound in the confined space of their mouths.

The hands on her chest were more forceful now, layering over the soft palming with stray pinches and tugs at her nipples. Ellana made another noise then, this one less one of protest. It, too, was consumed by the mouth on hers. Her tongue was being coaxed, and lapped at. The taste was-- She sighed, opening wider for it on reflex.

Why did it feel so...caring? Like it actually wanted her to feel good? What even  _ was _ it?

Too late did she notice one of the hands drifting from her chest, thumbing gently against her bellybutton, then down between her squeezed thighs. It set upon the barest pressure to her swollen clit--

Ellana bolted upright, thrashing her way to her feet. Her stool fell with a clatter behind her.

Around her, the other patrons only cheered briefly at the racket and raised their glasses to it, only to return straightaway to their own conversations. So, they could see her...but they were unable to see what was happening to her? Then again, she didn't even know what was happening to herself.

Hurriedly, Ellana began tugging her shirt back into place. That was when her trousers were suddenly yanked down.

Ellana found herself staring, mortified that her smallcloth had gone with them. She was standing, bottom-bared in the crowded bar.

Blood was flushing her face, but as she went to pull her trousers back up, her shirt was yanked over the swell of her breasts again. Soon she was fighting-- and failing-- to cover herself, and dying of embarrassment in the process.

"Alright, now what were you saying?" Bull was asking her, right next to her and yet as if worlds away. Cabot had gone elsewhere.

Ellana turned to him, trying to find words to explain. In that pause, one of the invisible hands wedged its way between her legs. The next thing she knew, two fingers-- long, thick, knobby-- had slid knuckle-deep into her.

White-hot pleasure shot up her spine. She was moaning before she could help it.

She'd been set up too well for it earlier-- when her tits were being played with and tormented. Her pussy had long been wet enough that the fingers slipped in easily, and swollen with arousal so that they fit deliciously snug inside the hot clench of her hole.

"Please--" Ellana told Bull desperately, knees wobbling as two foreign lengths stretched and caressed her. She was losing sight of what she was begging for. But the way her body felt made it feel simply natural to just  _ beg _ . "Please. I don't know--  _ no _ , don't do that--!"

Her tits were being mouthed on again, giving each of her nipples a turn of being tongued and suckled. Ellana's hips jerked reflexively, inadvertently riding the hand between her legs. Heat was overwhelming her, but Ellana tried to shut it out. She was getting too close....

"Don't do...?" Bull looked lost, completely unaware of what was happening with her.

Even still, with tension forming a hot drip between her thighs, his eyes on her only worsened the matter. It was as if his gaze added weight to the pulling ache in her groin. Being watched like this was-- it was--

The fingers were shoving up into her roughly now, fucking her wet hole with enough force to have her bouncing on her ankles. Ellana fell forward onto the table with a cry. Her whole body felt hot, pleasure flashing through her nerves. She shook her head, fighting to keep herself contained. She couldn't come here.

_ You will. _ Something was insisting this to her, in her mind. A feeling. A push.  _ You will. _

The mouth was grazing its teeth against her neck. A hand was still playing with her nipples. The fingers inside her curled slightly, merely flexing in a maddening, rocking motion against the vice of her hot, leaking hole; they turned slightly, and a third finger slid alongside her throbbing clit. Ellana nearly went slack.

She was on the edge, practically dangling off of it.

"No, please,  _ please _ , I can't, no, don't--" With a last desperate attempt, she called out, " _ Bull _ !"

She couldn't know for sure if she'd reached if, if she'd somehow managed to get him to really see her. He seemed to blink, and his grip on his mug had faltered; his eyebrows raised.

For some reason, it was exactly that which ended her.

She came furiously, painfully, gloriously. Her vision went askew and her toes curled. In a vivid, hyperreal moment, all she knew of were the fingers wrapped up in her coming puss. She collapsed against the table, wailing. It felt like forever frozen in time that she was trapped in the too-sharp intensity of oblivion.

The fingers inside her pulled and pulled, forcing her through every last wave of it. And just when she had a mind to begin crawling away, they stopped moving.

Ellana collapsed wholly on the table, legs hung limp to the floor, inner thighs slick from her cum. She was gasping for breath, still trembling, as she sought Iron Bull. To her dismay, he was back to being oblivious of her situation, downing the rest of the contents of his mug.

"Hey, no shame in tapping out," he said when his eyes met hers. He was grinning. "There I was, figuring you wouldn't drink even as much as you did. Not bad, 'Inquisitor'."

Dazed, Ellana swallowed. There was drool down her chin, but she didn't have the energy even to wipe it.

Her shirt was being pulled over her head, and all she could think was that it was a good thing because she was feeling too warm to have kept it on....

"No worse for the wear, all things considered," Krem said as he approached them. If his blithe take was anything to go on, he was equally as oblivious to Ellana's current state as the rest of the others had been. "There are unluckier sods who've died trying to drink the chief under the table."

She didn't understand. Was it some kind of ghost? It felt somewhat human. But why target her? Why do  _ this _ ?

She was being hoisted up now, by this invisible force. Cradled against it. It definitely felt more human now. It was gentle with her as it propped her back against the wall. Ellana blinked, vague lucidity reminding her to feel shame as she realized her private parts were in full display to the rest of the bar. The invisible force was pinning her so that her knees were spread to either side of her chest.

"But you seem to have the lion's share in luck," Krem continued on, flashing a sardonic smile her way, "your Worship."

Ellana felt a tingle spreading through her as she met his gaze. It melted into warmth as he said 'your Worship'.

How did she appear, if not topless, shiny with perspiration, with her legs parted? What was he seeing now, if not her pussy, puffed and wet from being fingered? Ellana felt herself clench from thinking about that orgasm. When had she ever come that hard? And she was still horny....

Something was touching her down there now, prodding.

She'd barely been aware of it. Now that she was, it pushed  _ in _ .

Ellana gasped sharply, straining in her pinned position as her folds were pried open. A shape was entering her, stretching her taut and wide with every inch it forced into her. It pushed deeper, and she trembled. It pushed deeper, and she began writhing. Until finally, she was at her limit, packed to the brink, sure there wasn't any space left inside her-- and she finally felt it fully hilt, squashing her folds and clit firmly against the base.

Despite the size, her pussy was leaking and hot around it. Then it started thrusting into her.

Ellana yelped sharply at the sudden motion, but immediately found her mouth caught in a kiss. It both eased her and added to her overwhelm. Contrary to all better judgement, her pussy was wet and hot for it, and the warmth was spreading through her. She moaned helplessly, taking it, taking everything.

Through the haze of dizzying sensation, she spotted Krem and Bull continuing to chat. She saw glasses and mugs continuing to toast, heard voices joking and laughing, and felt the creaking movements within the building from the wall against her back; all reminded her that she was still in a very public area.

She shut her eyes.

If they could see her.... They would only see her, wouldn't they? And not this invisible thing fucking her. They would see her pussy gaping-- stretched open wide. They would see her tits bouncing along with every upward shove. They would see her drooling mouth and her tongue being pushed around lewdly inside it. They'd see the face she was making, flushed red skin and watery eyes-- an embarassing, wanton face.

"...your Worship."

Ellana's eyes fluttered back open. She was startled to see Krem was standing closer now, and her anxiety only rose as she realized how fixed his eyes were on her. She made a noise in her throat, but the invisible force sealed it in her mouth with a firmer kiss. It began ramming its shape into her now and Ellana's mind started shorting out as pleasure began seizing her.

This time a kiss couldn't contain her cries. Tension began curling in her groin. It continued kissing around her mouth though, as if stealing as much of her taste as possible.

"I was going to say...there's something different about you right now, your Worship," Krem said then.

"Yeah," Bull spoke up. "Yeah, I've noticed that too."

Both of them were staring openly now, eyes raking over her in study, and it was as if Ellana could feel directly on her skin where their gazes lingered.

She squirmed fruitlessly, her pussy betraying her by getting wetter and more sensitive. The thrusts into her treacherous hole became relentless then. Ellana yelled, feeling herself letting go as her pussy became slowly reduced to liquid fire. Her hips jolted, her hole pulsed a whole-body numb for all of a single moment, her mind blanked-- and then she was coming.

Her pussy spasmed violently and she felt the aftershocks all throughout her frame as they rolled through her.

Ellana was loud about it, she knew. She felt like she was being cleaved by pleasure. Before it subsided, the shape in her surged up with an especially hard thrust that made her squeal.

Something hot was flooding her pussy then, cramming her walls and filling her up--

It was cum.

Ellana rode out the rest of her orgasm stiffly as more of it was forced into the tight space of her pussy, brimming out around her folds in overflow.

How was it coming? Why was there so much of it? Ellana collapsed forward, onto the form she couldn't see, breathless as she watched the cum fall from between her legs to the floor planks below her. It had to have been a human then. Maybe some kind of cloaking ability...?

Bull and Krem were walking towards a larger table, where the other Chargers had gathered.

Ellana was being carried again. She groaned as the shape inside her shifted as she was moved. More cum leaked out of her as she, too, was brought to the larger table.

The panic didn't set in until she was hoisted onto the table, and set down in the center. If anyone thought her being naked with cum oozing from her puss was strange, not one of them acted like it.

It didn't stop Ellana from being aware that she was at the focal point of their gazes, while being bared in entirety. Her hands shook as she tried to cover up what little she could. But she had to fling them out to catch herself against the table as she was turned over, arse exposed for all to see.

Her face flushed hot, but before she could really react, the shape-- it had to be a cock, that was all it  _ could _ be-- jammed into her messed, cum-slicked pussy.

Ellana bit her lip over the dirty moaning noises she couldn't believe she was making. She tried to scramble away, only to fall over as one of her legs was lifted high up; and then, that she was being rutted into sideways instead.

The Chargers were cheering and toasting. Ellana's head was spinning as she tried to meet someone's eyes, trying to see if even one of them noticed her.

But no one did.

No one was going to help her.

She didn't realize it, but she'd begun crying. It started with a hiccup. Then her vision blurred.

Ellana blinked, and just like that, tears were falling.

The movement inside her froze. Hands were upon her face then.

"Shhh, it's me," a voice was telling her, itself a bit distraught, but soothing still. "It's me. You know me. You know this."

She did. She knew that voice. She...knew this touch. She knew the cock inside her.

Cole was staring down at her intently as her memory slowly began to piece back together. His thumb wiped a fresh tear from her cheek.

"Oh." She hiccupped again, staring back at him wide-eyed and still feeling shaken for some reason. Her gaze drifted to the ongoing party around them. "I...."

She remembered.

"You were right," she mumbled, eyes welling up with tears again for an entirely different reason. "It was a bad idea. I couldn't handle it. I'm sorry. Thank you. We don't have to do that anymore."

She attempted to look away, but Cole's hands held her in place. He was still gazing at her, and she was glad her vision was too blurry for her to truly meet his eyes.

"I would like that," he spoke softly. "But...now that you've remembered...you're drenched."

It was every bit the truth, and she knew. She could feel herself leaking from the swollen, lewd ache of pussy where it clung tight to his cock.

To punctuate his statement, he thrusted into her slightly.

A low whine rose in her throat. "I don't know what's wrong with me."

Cole was repositioning them. Ellana followed his lead until she was on her back, lying on top of him. His cock had slid partially out, and he thrust it back into her now.

As she gasped, Cole planted a kiss to her temple. "You have needs. That's all. I can help."

"I don't know...," Ellana mumbled.

His arms snaked around her, hands skimming to the familiar position of one on her breast and the other to touch her below. Ellana exhaled, legs spreading for him as he pinned her clit between her folds and began to work them in a circular stroke.

"You don't have to," Cole assured her. "I can still help without you knowing."

Ellana would have smiled at that, but her mouth was forming a different shape as he gently twisted one of her nipples. He propped his hips up so that he could better grind his cock into her. Steadily, she was losing herself to him again.

"Harming helps, yet the helping harms," he said, breath tickling her cheek. "But when I get it just so, you shine so bright."

He was properly fucking her now, prying into her throbbing puss with his cock as he touched the rest of her body.

"I missed that," Ellana panted tightly, reaching back to touch his face.

Cole read her for what she meant. "My voice?"

"Mm-hmm." Ellana's head fell back as heat began to pulse between her legs.

"Oh."

Ellana felt herself tensing, felt the pleasure building and her sensitivity rising. Cole didn't speed up or become more forceful. This time, he simply waited patiently for her. Even when she began whimpering, bucking against him, he didn't race to push her the rest of the way.

She was still somewhat aware that there was a party going around them. But drowning all that out was the feel of Cole's body under hers, his hands teasing electricity into her nerves, and his cock pumping into her the pulsing heat of her cunt.

"I see you," he whispered.

She came.


	5. Time And Time Again

She called for Cole.

And these days, the Cole she meant and the Cole that once existed were two that were entirely different-- they diverged and were discordant of one another.

The Cole before, that Cole had been meant for  _ him _ . An apology, a voice of vengeance, a final impression upon the world that abandoned him so that he could live on even though he was no longer living. That Cole had been the beginning, questions that spirits merely phased through as scenery as they drifted to the corporeal world from the Fade.

That Cole had been crisp and sharp and brittle in a world too easily cut by his presence, and too easily did it also cut him, influencing and shaping him from needs and voids to be filled. He could weave things back together in a way to make them fit better than before. He could redo his mistakes if he fit them wrong. He had helped many in this way. He found many more who needed.

But now. Somehow there is a new Cole, unlike the one found in the dark and cold below of the Spire, but still born of him. And this Cole, more and more with each moment that mounted and moved between them, seemed to be for her.

He saw her first as a force, bridging gaps and paving ways he had yet to see between problems and solutions. The smell of Fade was upon her, and then he saw her second as something else. Something more. Something curious, and closer to what that Cole was than any being born outside the Fade had ever come.

Her need was strange. Ringing persistently-- yet beaten down into darted, embarrassed gazes and chewed-upon lips, and shifting her weight between her legs where want formed a space just for friction.

He approached, and when he retraced those steps folded into the sudden rhythm of memory that had come accessible to this form, he could tell that this is when the divergence happened.

This Cole had more feel, and felt more fleshed. This Cole is who she brimmed to the brink of brilliance for as she called and called and called, while her body flushed with ongoing ache that bore upon itself.

This Cole had a cock, fitting the precise shape that the burning inside of her had been begging for, even if she herself hadn't known to beg aloud yet.

He would be this Cole each time he was inside her, making her cry out in near-pain and most-pleasure on that fine edge of just " _ oh _ ". This was what she needed.

_ Help. _

He always responded. She was always wet, warm, and waiting.

"Do you feel good, too?" she had asked once, words bitten out rose-tinted and watery as she glowed with heat underneath him.

Her hands were placed on either side of his face-- a gesture that made it feel like this form's chest was suddenly too small.

This Cole, at that time, didn't know exactly how to describe his experience. Physically, he could register it on some level, the same way as he could with pain. But it wasn't about the physical, with him with her.

It was about the way he felt her feel when she spilled from her edges, bled from her boundaries, sparkled in color and light and haze that he wasn't sure she could see. He saw it. He saw her.

He told her, "Wilting, waking, then wayside, winding up, it begins washing over in waves."

He worked his way into her, worked her open. She let out a shuddery, stilted moan by his ear as her arms fastened around him, squeezing. She became like the shoreline, meeting his tide as he moved upon her, salty on his lips and sultry in his grasp.

"G-good?" she stammered, needing more. Head tossed back into messy, sweat-matted locks and eyelashes fluttering like moth wings beating frantically but the light was within her all along, and she was needing more.

"Good," he said, just to say it, just for her.

It wasn't a lie. It was good for him to have her unfurl at his word, turn into a white-hot pulse of beaming light that rained around them blood-warm and that--  _ that _ was good, to him. When she let out that sort of moan, the kind that sounded almost hurt, he knew it was.

She was taken entirely in the throes of it, brimming and blooming as everything she felt thrashed and writhed under her skin. He could feel that at least. That tight, squeezing spasm as she leaked around him, that was her body's way of telling this form what it wanted.

Still, he made sure to ask, and he made sure to lean in close. "Do you want my come?"

A whimper came from her, spreading its wings before taking flight from her mouth.

"Not yet," was her word, shimmering and seeking a shelter of him that he wouldn't think of not providing. "Fuck me more. Please. Let me ask for it."

And so he did.

And so he would.

Until parts of her swelled hot and dark with bloodrush, and parts of her became rigid with blind tension, and parts of her made him think of all beautiful things found in nature and in the Fade and now in her.

"Come in me--" she said in a breath squeezed tight between all her other noises.

Then she was shining.

Bright, blinding, a beacon brandished and battering all that was previously known, now blown away. If colors could be felt, he knew the full spectrum in her. If feelings could be seen, this form was witness to them.

And this form had such a...strong reaction to that, to her.

_ Come _ , her body cried when it called for it, but to him, it felt more like a pouring. A  _ going _ . An emptying. A being gone. A leaving of himself to join with her, as she was squeezing so hard until it was as if she was living inside of him, and him filling her so full until he lived inside of her too.

He felt the moment she began scattering, brimming and packed with it all, and he held her through it, gently sweeping back the pieces so none of it got lost, pressing lips and touching tongues the way she ached for until the hurt noises calmed and she was turning soft underneath him.

She was at her most sensitive now. And sometimes, he would continue touching her through it, not allowing her rest because sometimes, that was what she wanted.

Now, though, he held back, waiting for the lovely pattering sound in her chest to steady.

"Floating, fluttering, fleeting, rounding out edge and blurring out shapes," he expressed, holding her face as her breathing begun to even out. "This is how I feel all the time."

She held his gaze for all of a moment before bursting into laughter. "Post-orgasmic?"

"Maybe." It wasn't a lie.

"Lucky." She sighed, moving in toward him, pressing her forehead to his before shutting her eyes. She was smiling. "I want to feel like this all the time."

"Don't you already?"

The smile turned into a grin. "Is that what we're trying for?"

The grin turned into round shape as his fingers sought out the wet warm call of her. Her eyes opened to meet his, lucidity shrunk to a flicker. Her hands moved to him, touching him on the form he took. Even though he couldn't really feel it, but he couldn't bring himself to tell her so. He knew it was part of her to need to feel him this way.

Wasn't it enough that he liked that she liked it?

"Isn't it what we do?" he asked her, as she soaked his fingers with her smell and spilled herself-- spilled her sound, her scents, her wetness-- out into the world around him so that he could bask in it.

It built over him, trapping him inside so that all it was, was her. And all she was, was hazy-eyed and gasping and pulling him for a kiss. Pulling this Cole. Calling this Cole.

He could be this Cole a while yet.

For her.

For him.

  
  
  
  


This call was different.

He knew it all too well and appeared where she was in an instant.

The men grabbing her roughly didn't even notice him over their entrancement of her skin--  _ not theirs _ \-- the smell of where heat pooled at her pulse points--  _ not for them _ \-- the poetry of her shape where bone melted into plumpness--  _ never in their highest hopes or deepest dreams _ \--

They were spilling hot red over the room before they noticed him. They attained mercy before hitting the ground.

Cole saw her next.

She was struggling to breathe, eyes blinking and looking and darting, heart beating too fast as she pulled her limbs close to cradle herself. Her body was exposed and rattling from the cold, from moments before that shouldn't have happened.

"Cole," she whispered, fractured and no, that wasn't right at all. That wasn't her. That wasn't what he normally saw.

Her face screwed up, and then she was weeping. There were bruises left where she'd been grabbed. When he reached for her, she flinched. And at once, Cole was not sorry at all for the men he had killed.

Slow and featherlight, he coaxed his fingers against her hairline. She looked up, sniffling and miserable and clutching at the rags left where her shirt had been ripped open.

She had liked that shirt.

"Sleep now," he told her.

He caught her as she slumped, and lowered her gently upon the crates.

This was the third time this week.

She had been loud before, but she was getting louder. Others were hearing her, getting drawn in. Even the ones she didn't want. Even the ones who didn't deserve her.

Two bodies this time.

Much easier than the three. Still more of a bother than the one. Cole heaved one over his shoulder, while dragging the other behind him. That was something troubling, as well, the number. Before, it had been one at a time, every no and again. But groups were more common now. These events were more common now. If this kept up, the Inquisition could be decimated before they knew it.

This instance was at least close to the battlements, so Cole could dump them easily. It wouldn't take long before snow, dirt, and footfall scrubbed out the bloodtrail. He could make it so that it wouldn't be noticed until then.

They would be marked by Cullen as deserters, which wasn't far from the truth as far as Cole saw it.

Because, there was her. Ellana. She didn't deserve to be hurt. She was the last person Cole wanted to see hurt.

(When had that changed? Twining, twisting, tied to him so that he wouldn't know how to undo it, even if he wanted to.)

When he returned to gather her, she pressed against him for warmth in her sleep, though he had little to offer in that regard.

...Maybe that was why.

Maybe that was the reason why her call as of late was getting so loud, calling others to her, making it so that they noticed and so that Cole couldn't keep them from noticing any longer. He knew she looked at others. He knew others had been looking at her. But now, they were starting to  _ see _ her. The way Cole could see her. The way he thought he was the only one who would.

Her need was much greater now than he thought it would get. Even as he walked through the grounds, he felt gazes drift. Upon entering the main hall, focuses shifted. He always tried to tell her she was loud, but she never understood.

It made him wonder if maybe then the right thing to do was have her be seen, if only by the ones she wanted seeing her.

But did he want to share her?

Did...he  _ not _ want to share her?

Cole released her sleep hold once the door latched shut behind them.

She was blinking awake slowly as he set her down on her bed.

"Cole? What...?"

He interrupted her with a kiss, coaxing and gentle. He only pulled away when he was sure she'd be smiling. She blinked at him, color filling her lips where he'd pressed this form's mouth.

"Were we...?" she trailed off with a giggle.

He had her forget. It was much better this way, when she couldn't remember any bad.

He'd decided this was the best thing to do during events like these. Because once, she'd been too stubborn. She hadn't called for help until it was too late. And even after he'd handled the men, she'd cried and remained shaken for days. She wouldn't eat, she scarce slept, she was emotionally erratic and sick, and it got worse when others began questioning her. She hid away, even from him, endangering herself more as others kept seeing her.

So he made her forget.

And then, she was better.

Like, now. She was better.

He pressed kisses on her bruises, and she assumed they were from him and loved them. He slid off the raggy remains of her shirt, and she'd forgotten it was one her favorites and was amused that they must have torn it in passion together. He thumbed away the flakes of dried tears from her cheeks, and she thrummed with desire because in her mind, those must have been from him fucking her hard enough since he'd done so before.

There. Like this. She glowed for him.

"Cole--" she called, to this form, to him.

And he wondered what she might sound like if she called for someone else. However else might she shine. If she had others, she would be better protected from those she didn't want. Those who didn't deserve to see.

Because all that she was, was vibrance. Her, tangling her fingers into this form's hair.  _ He feels so good on me.  _ Her, putting her mouth over this form's skin.  _ I can't stop tasting him. _ Her, wrapping her legs around this form's hips and pulling him flush to her.  _ I want him, I want him.... _ Speaking, calling, to beyond this form, beyond this Cole, beyond  _ him _ , and to  _ who _ there was behind-- who spoke back to her, called back to her.

Weaving and winding and binding around, coiling hot and tight, boiling over and taking flight, he saw her, he saw her, he saw her. And she was shining.

And he decided, she was wonderful.

She should be shared.


End file.
